Late in the evening time, the rest of the Hanzo shinobi decided a nice trip to the sushi bar was in order. It wasn't anything special, the food was cheap to buy, but well worth the money. As the five of them all happily munched on their meals, Hibari started conversation.

"I'm glad Kemono has good friends to spend time with him."

"Yeah, I was worried he was like that snake girl, Hikage, for a while", Katsuragi added.

"Yeah, but still, how come he didn't introduce us to them", Asuka added.

"Maybe he doesn't want to merge training and his personal life together", Said Ikaruga.

"Maybe", Asuka mumbled.

The best reason Asuka could think of was that he still didn't trust her because she was a ninja. He promise to try and be her friend, but Kemono showed little progress towards her.

As she ponder these thoughts, she mentioned, "If he does introduce us to his friends, we have to pretend we don't know them."

At that moment, a familiar boy pounced on a seat next to Asuka.

"The special today! Double the teriyaki chicken too", Lobo drummed on the table.

Asuka practically shot all the food from her mouth like a firehose. Lobo had no idea that a few hours ago, the entire band of shinobi had been spying on him. Regardless, Lobo sat next to them. He looked to Asuka, who had yet to take her always from him.

"Yo", Lobo said to her.

"Uh, hi", She managed to finally say.

Looking back to her comrades, they weren't sure what to say or do. The best option was to play it cool. Even so, it was pretty awkward for the rest of them. The only one who didn't fin anything wrong for now was Lobo. He simply kept to his meal. However, he felt eyes honing in on him. Looking back to the others, all of them were staring at him the way a dog does when someone has food.

"What's up?"

"Aw, nothing, nothing at all", Asuka said trying to keep her cool. "It's just...You look..."

"Familiar? That's no surprise, we've met before", Lobo said taking another piece of food into his mouth.

All of their jaws dropped hearing Lobo casually say they know him. Did he know they were spying on him?

Ikaruga tried to play her cards cooly, "What do you mean?"

"We go to school together. I've seen you around but you seem to just, disappear. Where do you guys go?"

Despite his nature, Lobo was actually pretty sharp. They all had to keep their ninja lives a secret, and decided not to answer the question. At least he didn't suspect they were spying on him or his friends. To avoid any suspicion it would have been better to let the conversation die right there. Yet as always, one person just couldn't let sleeping dogs lay.

"I know you", Katsuragi said as she twirled the ends of her hair. "You're name is Lobo, right?"

"Yeah. And you are", Lobo asked holding a hand out to her.

"Katsuragi", She said taking her hand.

Katsuragi shook his hand, and have it a strong squeeze. Compared to the there students, her strength was above the rest, besides Kemono and Daidōji. Still, he had a pretty strong squeeze himself. Both let go at the same time.

"You're pretty strong", Katsuragi said holding her hand.

"You too", Lobo said shaking the squeeze out of his own hand.

Katsuragi and Lobo stared back at each other for some time. It felt like there was an unknown tension building up. Asuka leaned back a little bit, and so did the others.

Lobo finally spoke, but didn't break his composure, "What are you doing this Saturday?"

"I don't know, what are you doing", Katsuragi teased, still keeping a stern face.

"I'm gonna go by the docks for some late night fishing", Said Lobo. "You want in?"

"Hmm, maybe. If my schedule isn't full", Katsuragi answered.

"So you say. I'll be on the docks at seven near the box factory", Lobo said to Katsuragi.

Lobo never took his eyes off of the blonde girl as he payed for his meal and bid farewell to the others. With that, the girls all looked to Katsuragi.

"Did you just get asked out on a date", Hibari asked.

Katsuragi grinned, "I didn't get asked out on a date! I just got challenged! I'm pumped already! I better get some training in while I still can!"

"Actually, I think you DID get asked out on a date", Asuka tried to explain.

Katsuragi didn't take Asuka or Hibari's explanation into account. She payed for her meal, not even worrying about the tip, and jumped off the stool.

"I'm gonna start my training right now! I hope this guy is strong!" As Katsuragi took off, everyone else began to follow.

"We better get home. It's getting late", Yagyu pointed out.

"You all go ahead", Asuka said ordering another bowl of food. "I'll catch up to you all later."

"Okay, but don't stay out too late", Ikaruga ordered.

"Can do!"

Once the trio left Asuka behind, the girl finished the rest of her meal before starting home herself. Along the path, she caught sight of her own student walking out of a clothes shop. He hadn't noticed her yet, and she wasn't sure if she wanted him to. She shuffled ahead of him to try and avoid his sight. Kemono still caught sight of her in any case.

"Asuka", Kemono asked looking up from his bag.

Before Asuka knew it, she was walking side by side with Kemono. He had the bag in his left hand while she walked on his right side. She wished she was on his left side, so the bag could give them some distance. Even so, he kept a certain distance between them. Yet for some reason, Asuka was still uneasy around him.

Deciding to avoid any unnecessary tension, Asuka asked, "What did you buy from the store?"

"Oh this", Kemono dug through his bag. "Today my favorite series was turned into a video game! Look, I got the limited edition, with free DLCs too!"

Kemono held up the hack and slash game with great excitement and enthusiasm. He seemed pretty happy to get his hands on it.

"Is it really that good?"

"Good?! It's great! You should come by my room and try it!"

Eating this, Asuka remembered about this morning. Her face grew a little red a she paused.

"Asuka, what's wrong? All I said was...Oh...", Kemono suddenly realized what he just said.

Now Kemono was just as embarrassed as Asuka. He tried to think of a way to fix this. Knowing himself, he would probably stumble on his words, and only make things worse. The easiest thing...Well, not easiest thing, but better thing to do first was apologize.

"Listen Asuka, I'm really sorry about this morning. I guess I just..."

"Oh, no-no-no! It's fine, it's fine", Asuka cut him off. "I'm just as sorry. I fell asleep in your room when you invited me there. I overstayed my welcome."

"No, not at all Asuka. You're more than welcome anytime you want."

"Really", She asked. "You're not weirded out by it."

Kemono shook his head no, "It's ok, Asuka. I'm ok with it f you are...Ya know, just knock first in case I'm changing. I wouldn't want you catching me in my underwear or something."

Asuka chuckled hearing that, which earned a smile from Kemono too.

"Cause trust me, I don't want you to see me in my heart patterned boxers. That's a sight no one has to see", Kemono joked.

Both boy and girl laughed from the image running through their minds. With that, the tension was lifted. They no longer felt uneasy or nervous near each other. As they kept walking, Asuka wanted to say thank you, but she felt words weren't going to be enough. She wanted to bow, or at least shake his hand. However, they still kept walking and needed to get home.

Asuka took a chance an entertained her fingers within hers. It shocked Kemono like some kind of hand buzzer. He still kept his composure as she firmly held his hand, not wanting to let to.

"Thank you, Kemono", Asuka said as she adjusted his hand into hers.

He took a look at her. As always, Asuka had that sweet, "No Evil Here", smile on her face. Kemono almost stopped in his tracks seeing her so caring. Not that it wasn't expected from her, but it was something that could make any person's heart spawn butterflies.

"She'd make a wonderful girlfriend", Kemono thought to himself.

The pair kept walking, not letting their hand holding bother them. Well, not Asuka at least. Kemono didn't dislike them holding hands. Her hands were smaller than his. They were also really soft, and borderline warm and cool. This would be a perfect moment, if not for two things. The first was Kemono's damn nervousness. The second, was the appearance of a threatening person.

"Hey, Big Boob Girl", A female voice called Asuka.

Asuka recognized this voice. She froze and recalled all the memories she had of this person. Turning her head, Asuka saw a girl with tanned skin, and dark brown hair tied in a long ponytail with a white ribbon. The girl had a devilish grin as she's roof on the railing of some stairs.

"H-Homura", Asuka asked as her pupils danced around in fear and warning. "What are you..."

"IT'S YOU", Asuka jumped as Kemono yelled and let go of her hand. "Treacherous Snake Girl!"

Asuka watched in confusion. As Kemono stepped on a sewer pipe lid. The lid spun in the air like a giant coin being flipped. Using both hands, he grabbed the one hundred pound lid, spun around once, and threw it like an oversized frisbee. The disk sailed at Homura with the force of a medieval guillotine.

Still, Homura was more than capable of avoiding this. The girl jumped from her perch and let the disk sail underneath her. The manhole lid embedded itself into the building wall behind her. The moment Homura landed, Kemono was already upon her.

"Animarusensu: Wolverine Claw!"

Filling his hand with Ki, Kemono slashed at Homura with no intension of going easy on her. Homura was a trained shinobi, and knew exactly how to avoid this. Kemono missed his target, and only left five gashes across the cement. Just as he was comprehending that this was an unsuccessful attack, Homura was already running down the alley.

"GET BACK HERE SNAKE GIRL", Kemono roared before chasing after her.

"Kemono wait", Asuka shouted.

Before she began pursuing, Asuka pulled out a flare device, used and seen only by other shinobi. The shot raced into the air before bursting. Upon burst, a cloud in the sky read, "Help!"

Back on earth further away Hibari was the first to notice the smoke signal.

"Hey, isn't that Asuka's flare", She said pointing to the image above.

The rest of them caught onto the message in the sky.

"You're right. Something must have happened", Ikaruga said. "Let's go."

"Eight", The groups said in unison.

Kiriya Sensei warned them about dangers lurking everywhere. It was a daily caution as a ninja, but it was particularly high this time around because of what was happening to the other shinobi schools. They had to be prepared for the worse.

In a different direction, Lobo trolled on his skateboard. He slid to a stop and removed his earphones playing music. The boy had also noticed the signal flare for help sent by Asuka.

Alright, review time! I know I've been out of commission for a while. School just started and I'm looking for some part time work. The economy isn't exactly at its greatest right now, and I have to work around my school schedule. Plus I pulled something in my back at the GYM the other day, and I'm still recovering. But that's irrelevant to the story.

We pick up where we left off last time, not long after following Kemono. I gotta say, he's only been in two chapters, but I'm already attached to my Lobo OC. You'll be seeing more of him in the later chapters. However, you'll also be seeing more of Homura in later chapters too. By what I've written so far, her and Kemono are already on bad terms. That will be explained in a few chapters.

This chapter was mainly another prelude for what's to come. However, it DID clear up some of the tension between Asuka and Kemono. Hopefully this will open up some new doors for them...After dealing with Homura first! I have to get to class now, so I'll leave the chapter at this.